Pittsburgh, PA (My Sportsbook) - Jason Bay and Jack Wilson each drove in two runs, leading the
Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-4 victory over the
Arizona Diamondbacks in the third of a four-game set at PNC Park.
Adam LaRoche went 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Pirates, who lost the first two of this series and will try to gain a split on Monday afternoon. Raul Chavez stroked a pair of hits, scored twice and drove in a run in the victory.
"He's starting to drive the ball more on a line, more than up in the air," said Pirates manager John Russell about LaRoche. "That's a good sign. He's starting to make the contact I think he knows he can."
Phil Dumatrait (3-3) worked the first 5 2/3 innings to earn the win. He gave up two runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
"I didn't feel that great today," Dumatrait stated. "My off-speed [stuff] wasn't working that great."
Doug Davis (2-3) took the loss for Arizona. He was tagged for five runs on seven hits with four walks in 3 2/3 innings.
"Everytime I got two strikes on them, they just kept fouling pitches off until they got back into the count," Davis said. "I'd make a mistake pitch and they would hit it hard. I have to give them credit, they put good at-bats on me."
Mark Reynolds homered twice and drove in three runs for the Diamondbacks, who have lost four of their last six.
The Pirates, trailing 1-0 after stranding five runners through the first three innings, finally broke through with five runs in the fourth.
LaRoche doubled high off the right field wall to start the inning, barely making it into second after not running out of the box, and scored on a double into the left field corner by Jose Bautista. Chavez then singled home Bautista to put Pittsburgh on top, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Dumatrait and took third on a single by Freddy Sanchez before chugging home on a sacrifice fly to left by Wilson.
Sanchez raced to second on Wilson's fly ball when the throw went toward home plate and Nate McLouth drew a walk before Bay laced a double into the left field corner to chase home both runners for a 5-1 cushion. That also chased Davis in favor of Max Scherzer, who walked pinch hitter Doug Mientkiewicz before getting LaRoche on a fly ball to left to end the inning.
Mientkiewicz entered the game after Jason Michaels was ejected during his at- bat for arguing balls and strikes.
"He was fired up," noted Russell about Michaels. "He's a hard-nosed guy."
Reynolds led off the top of the fifth with his first home run of the game to pull the Diamondbacks within three.
The Pirates had their first two batters reach base in the bottom of the fifth, but Dumatrait bunted into a double play. Sanchez was hit by a pitch to keep the inning alive and Wilson singled up the middle on a 3-2 pitch to score a run.
Arizona threatened in the sixth, chasing Dumatrait with two on and two outs in favor of Tyler Yates. Chris Snyder walked to load the bases, but Reynolds grounded to short to strand all three.
Reynolds, though, clubbed his second homer of the game and 13th of the season, a two-run shot off Franquelis Osoria in the eighth to make it a 6-4 game.
Matt Capps, the last of six Pirate pitchers, gave up a two-out single in the ninth, then retired Orlando Hudson on a grounder to second to notch his 14th save.
The Diamondbacks went on top with a run in the second inning. Conor Jackson led off with a double, advanced to third on a grounder by Chris Young and scored on a passed ball by Chavez.
Game Notes
The Pirates improved to 6-2 in Dumatrait's starts since he joined the rotation in May...Jackson had two hits and scored twice for Arizona...Pittsburgh left 11 runners on base, while Arizona stranded eight...The Pirates will send lefty Zach Duke to the mound for Monday afternoon's series-finale, while the Diamondbacks will counter with veteran southpaw Randy Johnson.